Devils Diciples member arrested in killing indicted on lesser charge

A Tuscaloosa man who was arrested on a murder charge in the 2012 death of a Devils Diciples member has been indicted by a Baldwin County Circuit Court grand jury on a lesser charge.

Adam Mayton, 30, was indicted May 22 on a hindering prosecution charge in the shooting death of Samuel Dixson, 54, of Milton, Fla.

Mayton

Five other people have been charged in Dixson's death — one is charged with murder and the other four, like Mayton, are charged with hindering prosecution.

"Basically what the grand jury has said is that based on the evidence presented that his role was more of in line... with the assisting of the hiding of the crime and the efforts to avoid detection and trying to prevent the homicide from being discovered and that sort of thing," Baldwin County District Attorney Hallie Dixon said.

Dixson's nude body was found Sept. 12, 2012, near the Styx River off Baldwin County 68. The Baldwin County Sheriff's Office believes that Dixson, a Gulf Coast chapter Devils Diciple member, was shot four days earlier in a mobile home on Northcutt Lane in Baldwin County that served as a gang clubhouse.

Fred Weiss, 47, of Northport, was indicted on a murder charge in 2013 in Dixson's death.

One other suspect, Mary Hockett, 50, of Pensacola, Fla., also was indicted in 2013. She is charged with hindering prosecution.

The others charged with hindering prosecution are Ruth Boyles, 47, of Theodore, Charles Ozier, 25, of Elberta, and Bruce Talbot, 43, of Wilmer. They were indicted last month.

Dixon said trying to figure out what role Mayton may have had in the homicide was a complicated process.

She said part of the reason for that was because Mayton and Weiss showed up at the Robertsdale Police Department on Sept. 11, 2012, and said they wanted to turn themselves in on a homicide case. But after Mayton and Weiss spoke with attorneys, they decided not to speak to law enforcement.

One of the things that was obvious about Mayton when he show up at the Police Department was that he had been beaten.

"The fact that he was beaten badly before he turned himself in, of course, called into question... whether he was in fact a participant in the actual killing or whether there was a dynamic to this motorcycle gang that was influencing or pressuring or coercing him to say what he had said," Dixon said.